Neuroscience

Circadian regulation of endoplasmic reticulum calcium response in cultured mouse astrocytes

1. Ji Eun Ryu
2. Kyu-Won Shim
3. Hyun Woong Roh
4. Minsung Park
5. Jae-Hyung Lee
6. Eun Young Kim

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This work describes a circadian regulation in the expression of HERP, a regulator of endoplasmic reticulum calcium, in primary astrocytic cultures. This work is important because it highlights the potential importance of circadian rhythms in astrocytes, even though making a direct comparison between these rhythms in vitro and in vivo remains challenging. The technical approaches used in this work (RNA-seq, siRNA, Ca2+ imaging) are a solid support for data interpretation.

Reviewed by eLife

Noisy neuronal populations effectively encode sound localization in the dorsal inferior colliculus of awake mice

1. Juan Carlos Boffi
2. Brice Bathellier
3. Hiroki Asari
4. Robert Prevedel

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The paper reports the important discovery that the mouse dorsal inferior colliculus, an auditory midbrain area, encodes sound location. The evidence supporting the claims is solid, being supported by both optical and electrophysiological recordings. The observations described should be of interest to auditory researchers studying the neural mechanisms of sound localization and the role of noise correlations in population coding.

Reviewed by eLife

A novel monomeric amyloid β-activated signaling pathway regulates brain development via inhibition of microglia

1. Hyo Jun Kwon
2. Devi Santhosh
3. Zhen Huang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The study describes a link between beta-amyloid monomers, regulation of microglial activity and assembly of neocortex during development. It brings valuable findings that have theoretical and practical implications in the field of neuronal migration, neuronal ectopia and type II lissencephaly. Unfortunately, the evidence is incomplete and the manuscript would benefit from additional experiments to clarify the relationship between Ric8a and APP and bolster the findings.

Reviewed by eLife

Parallel mechanisms signal a hierarchy of sequence structure violations in the auditory cortex

1. Sara Jamali
2. Sophie Bagur
3. Enora Bremont
4. Timo Van Kerkoerle
5. Stanislas Dehaene
6. Brice Bathellier

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study advances our understanding of the way neurons in the auditory cortex of mice respond to unpredictable sounds. Through the use of state-of-the-art recording methods, compelling evidence is provided that responses to local and global violations in sound sequences are prediction errors and not simply the consequence of stimulus-specific adaptation. Although the cell-type-specific results are intriguing, further work is needed to establish their reliability.

Reviewed by eLife

Olfactory cortical outputs recruit and shape distinct brain-wide spatiotemporal networks

1. Teng Ma
2. Xunda Wang
3. Xuehong Lin
4. Junjian Wen
5. Linshan Xie
6. Pek-Lan Khong
7. Peng Cao
8. Ed X Wu
9. Alex TL Leong

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study partially fills the gap in the knowledge of olfaction at the level of the Anterior Olfactory Nucleus (AON) and Piriform Cortex with functional magnetic resonance imaging, electrophysiology, and modeling. The methods used are convincing. Some of the findings confirm ongoing hypotheses, such as the behavioral importance of AON for odor source discrimination. Other results shed light on the dynamics of the connection between the olfactory system and the rest of the brain.

Reviewed by eLife

Single neurons and networks in the mouse claustrum integrate input from widespread cortical sources

1. Andrew M Shelton
2. David K Oliver
3. Ivan P Lazarte
4. Joachim S Grimstvedt
5. Ishaan Kapoor
6. Jake A Swann
7. Caitlin A Ashcroft
8. Simon N Williams
9. Niall Conway
10. Selma Tir
11. Amy Robinson
12. Stuart Peirson
13. Thomas Akam
14. Clifford G Kentros
15. Menno P Witter
16. Simon JB Butt
17. Adam Max Packer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study compiles a wide range of results on the connectivity, stimulus selectivity, and potential role of the claustrum in sensory behavior. While most of the connectivity results confirm earlier studies, this valuable work provides incomplete evidence that the claustrum responds to multimodal stimuli and that local connectivity is reduced across cells that have similar long-range connectivity. The conclusions drawn from the behavioral results are weakened by the animals' poor performance on the designed task. This study has the potential to be of interest to neuroscientists.

Reviewed by eLife

Mediodorsal thalamic nucleus mediates resistance to ethanol through Cav3.1 T-type Ca2+ regulation of neural activity

1. Charles-francois V Latchoumane
2. Joon-Hyuk Lee
3. Seong-Wook Kim
4. Jinhyun Kim
5. Hee-Sup Shin

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study investigates the relationship between neuronal dynamics in the thalamus and brain state modulation. The claims that a specific channel is a critical player in the regulation of brain-states and ethanol-resistance in mice are supported by convincing evidence. The work will be of interest to systems neuroscientists interested in brain dynamics and behavioural states.

Reviewed by eLife

Spinal V1 inhibitory interneuron clades differ in birthdate, projections to motoneurons, and heterogeneity

1. Andrew E Worthy
2. Joanna T Anderson
3. Alicia R Lane
4. Laura J Gomez-Perez
5. Anthony A Wang
6. Ronald W Griffith
7. Andre F Rivard
8. Jay B Bikoff
9. Francisco J Alvarez

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides a valuable description of subtypes of V1 neurons, including birthdates and connections to motor neurons. V1 neurons are one of the main groups of inhibitory neurons in the spinal cord. The methods of data collection and analysis are convincing. This work will interest developmental biologists and neuroscientists working on spinal circuits.

Reviewed by eLife

Astrocytes mediate two forms of spike timing-dependent depression at entorhinal cortex-hippocampal synapses

1. Irene Martínez-Gallego
2. Heriberto Coatl-Cuaya
3. Antonio Rodriguez-Moreno

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study reports the existence of specific spike-timing dependent synaptic plasticity processes at two excitatory synapses of the dentate gyrus granule cells. These synapses link the entorhinal cortex and the dentate gyrus but via different circuits. With state-of-the-art patch-clamp electrophysiological analysis, the authors provide convincing information on the molecular mechanisms underlying these 2 forms of synaptic plasticity showing a critical role for astrocytes in both alongside some features distinctive to each pathway. These results will be of interest to neuroscientists as they uncover detailed plasticity mechanisms involving the hippocampus.

Reviewed by eLife

Spatial frequency channels mediate a mental ruler for spatial vision in humans

1. Shijia Zhang
2. Ce Mo
3. Lei Mo
4. Fang Fang

Reviewed by PREreview